Three teens opened a suitcase on the beach hoping for lost treasure. What they found was key to catching the ‘lethal landlord’
One glistening day, three teenagers stumbled across a suitcase along the rocky shores of Seattle’s Alki Beach.
The inquisitive trio hoped to find something of value as they eagerly unzipped the black bag before setting cameras rolling for a TikTok video.
As they hauled the bag from the body of water, instead of treasure, they found the case was stuffed full of rotting human remains.
Last week saw the return of Netflix’s hit true crime series Worst Roommate Ever.
In the final episode of its second season, viewers were introduced to Michael Lee Dudley.
The warm-humoured, unassuming looking 66-year-old looked, by all appearances, a committed Washington Airbnb owner.
He’d previously volunteered to drive one renter to a job interview and cared for another’s pets – he himself was smitten with his dog, Duke.
But Dudley, who has since earned the sobriquet “The Lethal Landlord“, was actually a killer.
In late 2019, Jessica Lewis, 35, and her boyfriend Austin Weener, 27, rented one of Dudley’s rooms in Burien.
By the following summer, the couple had vanished without a trace.
On June 9 2020, a neighbor said they heard a man’s voice pleading for his life as gunshots rang out, according to court documents. When police arrived at the scene, Dudley refused to open the door.
The couple had gotten into a spat with the landlord over unpaid rent, prosecutors said.
The tenants were dismembered and their body parts squeezed into the suitcase.
Ten days after the murder, the three teens discovered the remains.
The gruesome video was posted on TikTok and went viral, quickly garnering more than 30 million views.
After the discovery, police obtained a search warrant at Dudley’s property where Lewis and Weener had been staying.
There, authorities discovered freshly covered bullet holes and traces of blood.
Dudley was arrested on August 19 2020 on suspicion of murder, and charged five days later.
His ex-girlfriend of 14-years Marlys Gordon spoke out alleging that he once ricocheted her head off a patio floor with a gun in his hand, local news station King5 News reported.
Lewis’ aunt Gina Jaschke also claimed on Worst Roommate Ever that Dudley had previously held her niece at gunpoint, killed animals as threats and placed a tracker on her car.
On April 7 2023, Dudley was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder.
He will now likely spend the rest of his days behind bars, after he was sentenced to 46 years in prison. He is currently serving his time at Washington State Penitentiary and will not be eligible for parole until the age of 104.
